One question that came in some time
ago: “What is the difference between the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost?” I am
not sure that I talked about that, but I am willing to try to answer it. The
only hesitation I have about answering it is that it may spoil at least three
or four hours discussion in some High Priests’ quorum.
The Holy Ghost is the third member of
the Godhead, a personage of spirit, to whom certain definite duties have been
assigned, not clearly understood by us, but they are of a most important
character. The Holy Ghost is an enlightener. He carries the torch of knowledge,
the truth of inspiration. By some mysterious means not known to us, those who
receive that gift have an official relationship with the unseen world by which
we gain that which we might not otherwise gain, in intelligence, in light, in
power. It is a subject we know only dimly, but we do know that those who speak
by the Holy Ghost, who think by the Holy Ghost, who labor by the Holy Ghost,
always think and labor and speak according to the will of God, and are on the
way to salvation.
The Holy Spirit is an influence, I
suppose is the best word, that proceeds from God. . . . That influence fills
the immensity of space—everywhere; everything in the universe is tied together,
is touched by that influence. We call it the Holy Spirit. So man is always in
touch with God and God is always in touch with man—the most humble, the least
worthy in his own opinion, the most distant, are all tied to God, as it were,
by the Holy Sprit. By some mysterious means the will of God may be transmitted
to me, to you, to all of us; and the prayer I utter tonight will be carried by
the Holy Spirit to God. It is one universe, not a universe of distant parts,
not part here, part there, and part somewhere else, but one universe, one
unity, with God in the center, if I may use that figure of speech. That is
approximately as I can give it in a few words the “Mormon” doctrine as to the
Holy Ghost and the Holy Spirit. (John A. Widtsoe, Lecture 4, “The Government of
God,” February 3, 1938, Modern Revelations and Modern Questions, 16-17)
